- Part 1 - Part 2 -
Hello again. We continue to retrospectively show the unusual at the structures of the very first Russian railways.
Today's topic will be civil structures of the railways (I will write about passenger buildings sometime separately). These were all other buildings, from railway barracks and street toilets to branch buildings and road departments. Employees of the NMS (if such a service is still available at Russian Railways) will probably be interested. The peculiarity of Russia was that it had (and still has) endless expanses. To cover them with a network of railways, colossal expenditures of material resources were needed, including for the construction of buildings for various purposes. As a rule, local building materials were used in the construction of buildings. There were standard designs of buildings for stations of various classes, which were successfully implemented for these purposes. This is not surprising, as a rule, sawn timber was used almost everywhere,forest and stone from the nearby quarries, which Mother Russia has always been rich in. Of course, for administrative and other similar buildings, construction was carried out according to individual projects and building materials were chosen rather than adapted from local ones. Well, funds for this were also allocated accordingly. What is it all about? Interestingly, in the vast majority of cases, all these buildings have survived several eras and are still in use. Even the traveling barracks continue to thrive, despite the fragility of the timber structures. Only now, almost everywhere, these buildings are supplied with centralized electricity and (or) heat supply. But what about the time of the tsar, when it was not technically feasible in such a volume? Probably, there were still some secrets. Let's get a look. Let's start, as in the navy, with latrines of apron latrines.than Mother Russia has always been rich. Of course, for administrative and other similar buildings, construction was carried out according to individual projects and building materials were chosen rather than adapted from local ones. Well, the funds for this were also allocated accordingly. What is all this for? Interestingly, in the vast majority of cases, all these buildings have survived several eras and are still in use. Even the travel barracks continue to thrive, despite the fragility of the timber structures. Only now, almost everywhere these buildings are supplied with centralized electricity and (or) heat supply. But what about the tsar's rule, when it was technically not feasible in such a volume? Probably, there were still some secrets. Let's get a look. Let's start, as in the navy, with latrines of apron latrines.than Mother Russia has always been rich. Of course, for management and other similar buildings, construction was carried out according to individual projects and building materials were chosen rather than adapted from local ones. Well, the funds for this were also allocated accordingly. What is all this for? Interestingly, in the vast majority of cases, all these buildings have survived several eras and are still in use. Even the travel barracks continue to thrive, despite the fragility of the timber structures. Only now, almost everywhere, these buildings are supplied with centralized electricity and (or) heat supply. But what about the tsar's rule, when it was technically not feasible in such a volume? Probably, there were still some secrets. Let's get a look. Let's start, as in the navy, with latrines of apron latrines.for administrative and other similar buildings, construction was carried out according to individual projects and building materials were chosen rather than adapted from local ones. Well, funds for this were also allocated accordingly. What is it all about? Interestingly, in the vast majority of cases, all these buildings have survived several eras and are still in use. Even the traveling barracks continue to thrive, despite the fragility of the timber structures. Only now, almost everywhere, these buildings are supplied with centralized electricity and (or) heat supply. But what about the time of the tsar, when it was not technically feasible in such a volume? Probably, there were still some secrets. Let's get a look. Let's start, as in the navy, with latrines of apron latrines.for administrative and other similar buildings, construction was carried out according to individual projects and building materials were chosen rather than adapted from local ones. Well, funds for this were also allocated accordingly. What is it all about? Interestingly, in the vast majority of cases, all these buildings have survived several eras and are still in use. Even the traveling barracks continue to thrive, despite the fragility of the timber structures. Only now, almost everywhere, these buildings are supplied with centralized electricity and (or) heat supply. But what about the time of the tsar, when it was not technically feasible in such a volume? Probably, there were still some secrets. Let's get a look. Let's start, as in the navy, with latrines of apron latrines.
If you look closely, the pipe on the platform toilet is too thick. If there is an ordinary wood-burning stove, then why are there such difficulties?
Indeed, this is not an isolated case. The pipe on the building from the latrine is clearly not simple. What secret can she keep in herself? I will not intrigue and will again give an executive drawing from the volume on the Kharkov-Kherson railroad, which reflects reality better than all similar volumes.
Promotional video:
Anyone who has ever had a toilet like this will immediately be slightly surprised. Well, probably, this knot in this design is the least protected from vandalism and theft, at least by the fact that there is a lantern on the walls. But what is the device circled in red in the closet? Is it really an oven? It is quite possible that in some views from above, even something similar to a firebox is drawn. Why, then, did the engineer not indicate the chimney-duct doubled in each other, as it should be logically? And the logic in general is quite simple - it is a furnace that does not use fuel. That is why the tops of the pipes on the roofs of the toilets are suspiciously clean. Actually, these are not chimneys at all, but ventilation pipes, one of which removes air from the cesspools, the other from the premises of the toilet itself. Well, the stove actually gives off all the heat to the room without any pipe,an approximate view of such a furnace is indicated here. The toilet is a building for temporary residence of people, and there was no need for a separate outlet of the air spent by the stove outside. Can anyone imagine a toilet like this anywhere now? How many of them have I seen, and even obviously old, in this design, nowhere and never have I seen in them any hints of either lighting or heating. But how did such an oven work? It is rather difficult to understand from the drawings. The secret most likely hid again in the pointed spiers on the roof of the toilet and in the pipe itself, which on top could have caches-cavities for storing certain objects. As you can see, the technology was the same everywhere and it was applied almost everywhere. Move on. Can anyone imagine a toilet like this anywhere now? How many of them have I seen, and even obviously old, in this design, nowhere and never have I seen in them any hints of either lighting or heating. But how did such an oven work? It is rather difficult to understand from the drawings. The secret most likely lay again in the pointed spiers on the roof of the toilet and in the pipe itself, which on top could have hidden cavities for storing certain objects. As you can see, the technology was the same everywhere and it was applied almost everywhere. Move on. Can anyone imagine a toilet like this anywhere now? How many of them have I seen, and even obviously old, in this design, nowhere and never have I seen in them any hints of either lighting or heating. But how did such an oven work? It is rather difficult to understand from the drawings. The secret most likely lay again in the pointed spiers on the roof of the toilet and in the pipe itself, which on top could have hidden cavities for storing certain objects. As you can see, the technology was the same everywhere and it was applied almost everywhere. Move on. The secret most likely lay again in the pointed spiers on the roof of the toilet and in the pipe itself, which on top could have hidden cavities for storing certain objects. As you can see, the technology was the same everywhere and it was used almost everywhere. Move on. The secret most likely hid again in the pointed spiers on the roof of the toilet and in the pipe itself, which on top could have hidden cavities for storing certain objects. As you can see, the technology was the same everywhere and it was used almost everywhere. Move on.
As you know, line personnel on sections of the road lived in barracks. Who was there, roughly imagine what it is. Typical buildings of such barracks can be found almost everywhere; they have not undergone significant changes over the years.
Let's take a look at a drawing from the same old collection and note some details.
As you can see, the roof of a typical barracks again contains pointed elements, between which there is a grating. The fact that this is a lattice is beyond doubt, because the shading of this element does not coincide with the roof. But why are all the pipes on the ridge of the roof? Maybe the engineer simplified his work and installed pipes so as not to draw too much? Perhaps, but in the top view, almost all chimneys are indeed located strictly along the central axis of the building, in place of the main wall. In order for the roof structure to be stable under the snow, it is necessary that there is a single continuous beam in the roof ridge (correct, if not right). Chimneys are absolutely out of place here. We are looking at a modern photo of the barracks. The chimneys there are far from the place of the ridge. What's the matter here? We look further. In the road master's room there is a kind of mannered triangular stove. It can be seen that he was not a simple person, well, and he had a stove, respectively, in terms of status. Probably something like that.
Bah, this is our old friend, a fireplace converted into a stove. In the photo, apparently, is already a late revision of such a device for fuel. But if we assume that in its original form it was a non-fuel fireplace, then why did its pipe go to the ridge of the roof and intersect the grate with pointed elements? The answer suggests itself - the grate was the reason for its operation, and from it to the fireplace in the wall there was a metal connection. Switching on and off of such a "fireplace" was done through a hole with a door on top or on the side (always, looking at such doors, I thought what they were for). Well, what happened to the stoves in the rooms of lower-ranking staff?
No less often I was surprised earlier with such a design. Painfully they did not fit into either the interior or the understanding of the process. On many I noticed that the furnace holes on them, both above and below, looked like foreign bodies, and sometimes there were even suspicions that their doors were taken from other structures. It turns out that they acted on the same principle? Not surprising. As a child, I once watched how such a furnace was broken. Its walls were lined with bricks from the inside, and coins of 1952 were found inside the seams of this brick. A completely irrelevant detail, but it still speaks about something. But what did such barracks look like at the very time they were built?
It may seem, but the pipes really stand on the ridge of the roof, and are covered (or covered) from above with metal covers, as if they were not chimneys at all. And there are a lot of such photos. Hmmm … It seems that everything is clear with heating. What about electricity? Unfortunately, there are very few publicly available photos of the interior of railway civil structures. But those that exist are impressive.
I do not presume to assert that this light is a product of atmospheric electricity, but there are many indications of this. Photo from the beginning of the 20th century.
As you can see, in the history of railways, not everything is so simple.
Until next time. Continued: Part 4.